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Motorcyclist flees crash scene; 2nd man booked

Police officers and emergency personnel were dealing with a motorcycle wreck caused by a suspected drunken driver when an officer was nearly struck by another drunken driving suspect early Sunday, according to the Grand Junction Police Department.

Emergency workers were at 25 and F 1/4 roads shortly after 1 a.m. after a male motorcyclist fled a crash, leaving his female passenger with serious injuries. The motorcyclist has been identified as 22-year-old Justin Perkins.

Police on Monday were still seeking Perkins on suspicion of vehicular assault, leaving the scene of a serious bodily injury accident and driving under the influence of alcohol.

Adam Winch, a Grand Junction police officer, had blocked the scene with his patrol car when he noticed a pickup veer around the roadblock toward him, he later wrote in affidavit after the pickup driver was arrested. Winch had tapped his flashlight on the truck’s driver side window and the truck skidded to a stop.

The driver, 18-year-old Jeremy Eyestone, had red, watery eyes and smelled strongly of alcohol, the affidavit said. He refused to perform a voluntary roadside sobriety test and initially refused a blood test, while hurling insults at Winch and trying to escape the patrol car on the way to a hospital for a blood draw, Winch wrote in the affidavit.

Eyestone is suspected of vehicular assault, driving under the influence of alcohol, possession of alcohol by a minor, violating traffic laws and driving without a driver’s license in his possession.

“The truck approached me so fast I had to jump out of the way to avoid being hit by the truck, with the truck passing next to me within several inches,” Winch wrote in the affidavit. “A nearby witness later informed me that it appeared the truck had actually hit me.”